beyond the beatitudes

Beyond the Beatitudes11“Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. 12Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. (Matt. 5:11-12)

Jesus does not leave us to develop our own understanding of how to apply the Beatitudes. The rest of the Sermon on the Mount gives examples of how we are to incorporate the Beatitudes into our daily lives.

God had given the Ten Commandments to the Israelites soon after they had emerged from the slavery of Egypt. Such broad statements of how to be in relationship with God and with one another require great understanding for correct application. For a nation new to freedom and without understanding, God gave more specific instructions. These were amplifications of the commandments and came to be known as the ceremonial law, ceremonial in the sense that they were to be practiced as a means to bring the people to understanding. The books of Exodus through Deuteronomy contain these many additional laws. They were not intended to be the totality of how to be in relationship with God and mankind, but were examples to show God’s intention for man.

By the time of Jesus, the ceremonial laws were entrenched as part of religious life, and the priesthood had added a huge amount of additional laws on top of these. Rather than leading mankind to a deeper relationship with God and their fellow men, the law had become a substitute for relationship, a barrier to deeper understanding of man’s place.

The Beatitudes overthrew the existing paradigm of works and restored relationship with God as the underpinning of everything else. The wording was new, but the intent was as old as Creation. The progression of the Beatitudes leaves no doubt as to the direction for all men and women to follow, but this new concept stood in such stark contrast to the status quo that Jesus gave specific examples of how to follow these “new” old commandments.

In the remainder of the discourse known as the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus gives examples of relationship living, how to be rather than what to do. The primacy of relationship with God is central to the Beatitudes. This is the relationship that will govern all relationships, for by being in oneness with God, we will be in oneness with others who are in oneness with God. For those who are not in oneness with God, we will be a light shining on a hill, a reflection of the peace that passes all understanding.

Two thousand years after Christ, the Beatitudes remain as God’s instructions on how to live on planet earth. They are hidden in plain sight, seen by those who have eyes to see but cloaked in mystery for those who are in bondage to the thinking of the popular culture of whatever day. We are dazzled by the false lights of the broad way, the way that is heavily travelled and shows popular approval. Popularity is the broad way, and it will lead us astray.

Jesus reaffirms the eighth Beatitude in Matthew 5:11-12. New beginnings are hard, not only for the person who changes, but for those who knew him previously. Change is difficult. Change is a process for individuals and cannot be done en masse. The individual emerging from the baptism of the sanctuary is either a rebuke or an example, depending on the viewer’s perception. Peter spoke similar words in 1 Peter 4:12-14. These sentiments gave the early Christians strength. The words may be misunderstood as to apply only to a future heaven. Do not let these verses take from you the promise of heaven in the here and now. Indeed, those who were willing to sacrifice their lives were confronted with the bondage to untruths in this world, the loss of the peace they had found. Their courage to forfeit life rather than peace is admirable.

The Kingdom of Heaven is future tense, and it is also present tense. The Beatitudes are our guides to happiness, both now and later. Revisiting them daily makes them a part of our reality as we discover more possessions – material, intellectual, and spiritual – that hold us in the state of “poor in spirit. Experiencing them allows us to begin to incorporate them into our daily lives. Practicing them continually moves them from a form of work to a state of relationship, from a form of doing to a state of being.

God created a world in which men and women would be happy, blessed. The original understanding on how man was to “be” had long since been lost. Blessedness had become the exception rather than the rule. Jesus shows us how we are to return to God’s original intent for enduring blessedness now. The kingdom of heaven exists where man and God are in oneness. Jesus does not want us to miss the fact that choosing the correct path will be unpopular. After giving us fair warning, He proceeds to give examples of the Beatitudes in action in the remainder of the Sermon on the Mount.

The narrow way is not easy, but walking in the certainty of faith provides blessings, even happiness.Next article